Stand or Fall
In the Book of Mark, Jesus is recorded as asking the question, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (v.36)”[i] The background shows us Jesus was telling his disciples about his own impending death and subsequent resurrection. Some of the foreshadowing Jesus shared was the fact he “must suffer many things” and be rejected, judged, and killed by the religious “elite” (v.31). I guess you could consider the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes the “woke people” of the day. They were a select few, high on the religious food chain, who thought and acted upon what would serve them best as opposed to serving God best.
Peter, in all his
humanity, pulled Jesus aside to reprimand him regarding his talk of suffering,
death, and resurrection at the hands of the woke mob. What was Jesus’ response?
He chastised Peter and said, “Get behind me Satan! For you are not setting your
mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (v.33).
This is where we
are today, folks … two thousand years later. Our society is making every effort
to eradicate God from the equation … and the Church, unfortunately, has stepped
aside in allowing this. Because we’ve lost our first love, like the Church of
Ephesus, we must repent. Writes the Apostle John in his vision, “But I have this against
you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and
do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove
your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”[ii] Wouldn’t you rather hear, “Well done, good and faithful
servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter
into the joy of your master.”[iii]
Like the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30), it’s all dependent
upon what we do with our talents while the Master is away. If we lay down, the
Master will return and see our laziness, our fear, and/or our apathy, and we’ll
be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In
other words, we’ll get exactly the beatdown we deserve. Conversely, if we use
our talents to build ourselves, others, and the Church, the Master will recognize
our “efforts” and give us more.
Speaking as the Master in the parable, Jesus said, “So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten
talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will
have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken
away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer
darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”
(v.28-30).
So, what does this all tell us? What message am I
trying to convey to you, the Church, through the Word of God in our
contemporary setting? I’m telling you to stand for something now or you will be
part of the great fall. Our house … our Church … is dividing because so many
people are focused on self as opposed to God. That’s no B.S. truth, folks! If you
can’t see it or refuse to acknowledge it … just maybe, you’re part of the
problem.
Mark 3:22-30 talks about “Blasphemy Against the
Holy Spirit.” I acknowledge I’m pulling this a bit out of context but the
principle behind it remains true. The surrounding texts tell us Jesus is
rebuking the ignorance of the scribes’ accusations of him being possessed by
demons. He reminds them, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom
cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will
not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a
strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong
man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.”[iv] Stand in Christ, folks!
If we, the Church, refuse to stand for Christ …
if we refuse to share in suffering for his name’s sake, I fear we’ll be the
generation who hears those ominous words from Christ, ““Not everyone
who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do
many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew
you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’[v] How disheartening would that be? To spend one’s entire life “pursuing
God” only to find out, the Promised Land isn’t yours to enjoy. Why? Because you
failed to do the will of the Father … because I failed to do the will of the
Father. And, what’s his will?
His will is simple: love him with everything you’ve
got and love your neighbor … in that order and, yes, it takes both. The Apostle
Matthew shares another instance of the woke mob questioning Jesus: “And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a
question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets.”[vi]
If we say we love God but have no love or
compassion for our fellow man, our religion is false. If we say we love our
fellow man but have no love for God, we’re submitting to an everchanging ideology
which rises and falls on the whims of the dumb masses. God’s will … his
greatest commandment … involves each of us doing both parts: loving him and
loving our neighbors. I can’t say it enough times … we do this and we can
change the world.
And love doesn’t mean tolerance … or inclusivity …
or equity … or with whatever new term the woke mob is trying to burden our society.
The Apostle Paul wrote this concerning love, “Love
is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not
arrogant or rude. It does
not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does
not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. So
now faith, hope, and love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is
love.”[vii]
So, again I ask you the same question Jesus asks, “What’s it going
to benefit you to win the entire world but forfeit your soul?” Is the juice
worth the squeeze? The world’s going to promise you it is, but repeatedly, Jesus
tells us in the Gospels, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”[viii]
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